


The Radiant Lady

by NatashaRedFox



Category: Chernobyl (TV 2019)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28906245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatashaRedFox/pseuds/NatashaRedFox
Summary: She is drawn to a place of a horrific accident, where her influence begins to spread
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5





	The Radiant Lady

She burst out into the cool night air in a dramatic fashion. She felt strong, she felt powerful, she felt invincible. She was glowing. She spread her arms out wide, looked up into the sky, and twirled around, spreading her radiance all around. She laughed out loud, she hadn't felt this powerful for a long time. She lay back and drifted skywards on an updraught. She stretched herself out, still spinning. She slowed the spin and lay here in he air, looking up at the sky, savouring the moment. She wondered what had brought her here. Something immensely forceful. A test she didn't know about? All she knew at his moment was that she hadn't been brought here for her healing capacity. She was far too strong for that.

She breathed in deeply, taking in the air. _Interesting_ , she thought. Iodine, strontium, caesium. Polonium. This was no warhead test. This was from a reactor core. But how? Something catastrophic must have happened. She focused her senses. She could hear fire engines. She brought herself upright and looked down. Oh. Her earlier high spirits dissolved into the metallic air. Contrary to what many people believed, she wasn't evil. She was neutral. She went to wherever she was summoned. She hated the big events where innocent people got hurt. She was maybe not entirely neutral though. She enjoyed tormenting the ones who deserved it.

She swooped down to get a better look. It was a mess. The building had completely collapsed in some places, and the core was open to the sky. Fires were burning all around. She could feel herself getting stronger all the time. She descended into the building unseen, completely invisible to the eye. She drifted through walls and rubble as if they weren't there. Injured men lay dying on the floor. She stroked their hair as she passed. There was no hope for them. At least for these ones it would be quicker.

She headed towards the core. It was completely destroyed. She dove off the walkway into the burning remnants. She flew upwards again just as two men poked heir heads over to take a look. Fools! They had killed themselves. Why on earth did they do that? They ran off in terror, leaving a large man holding the door. She made an assessment of him as he moved away from the door. She sighed and patted him on the back, completely unnoticed by him. "This isn't the end for you," she said, her words unheard. "But it will often feel like it is. And sometimes you'll wish it was."

She ran after the other two men. One had fallen, and wouldn't be getting up again. _I'm sorry_ , she thought. She followed the other one into what appeared to be a control room. There were three terrified men, and one angry one. The sick man she arrived with tried to explain the situation, but the angry man was having none of it, and he sick man was too ill to argue. She rubbed his back as he vomited violently, before being taken to the infirmary by one of the young, scared men. The angry one was still not believing what he had been told. He was stubborn. She took a look at him. "Ah, what have we here? We have danced before, haven't we, comrade?" She danced around him, unnoticed. She knew him. She recognised him. They had met before. He had been surprisingly strong. He was going to have to be strong again if he wanted to survive this time. "You'll have to fight so much harder this time, comrade Dyatlov" she whispered. She had been powerful before, but this time she was even more so. As she watched him giving orders to an engineer, another memory tugged at her. She felt a wave of sadness. "I am so sorry about your son," she said. "I never wanted that to happen. I go where I am summoned." She looked down, then back at him. "Or where I am taken..." In that brief moment she could feel how much he blamed himself for it.

She turned away and drifted out of the room, out of the building. Firemen were trying to get the blaze under control. One of them picked up a chunk of graphite. She ran over to him and took his hand as a colleague told him not to fuck with it. The graphite fell to the ground and she held his hand in both of hers. These brave men had no idea what they were dealing with. She let go of the man's hand and walked amongst them. "You were told there was a fire, but nobody told you what else you were facing. Nobody knew. And the ones who figured it out were dismissed as delusional." She shook her head sadly. It was such a waste.

She felt drawn back to the control room. The shouty one she knew as Dyatlov had left, it was just four younger men now. One of them had obviously been below. He was in shock, his uniform dirty. From a distance she appraised him. "You've had more exposure than is good, but you will survive. Your caution has saved you." As he explained what he had seen, she looked across at a thin, dark haired man. "You will be fine." Don't be ashamed of your fear. It will keep you safe." She looked towards the other two men, one slim and blond, one plump and dark. "Why do I get a bad feeling about you two?" She wondered. "You've not been too exposed, but for some reason I have a feeling that I will be doing the danse macabre with you too." Snippets of their conversation registered in her consciousness. "Open the valves." "Do it by hand." "Hours down there." _Ah yes_ , she thought. _That'll do_ _it._

The one who had been downstairs, who appeared to named Boris, begged them not to go. "Listen to him!" she urged. The one named Sasha was insisting on performing the futile task. He simply couldn't believe that he core was gone. The younger blond one, Lenya, was going to do whatever Sasha instructed him to do. He felt it was his duty to do all he could to help. If only they would believe what the other men had witnessed. Sasha turned to leave and bumped face first into her, not that he noticed. He would though, in time. He left the room with Lenya, who looked petrified but determined. "You tried" she said to the one named Boris. As she left to go with he other two, she saw him turn away and cry. _He knows_ , she thought. _He knows he will never see them again._

Down in the bowels of the place, she tried in vain to make herself noticed to the two men. "Turn back!" she begged. "Believe your comrades! You don't need to do this!" They simply couldn't sense her. Their sense of duty pushed them forwards. As they began opening the valves the younger, slimmer one began to cry, but continued with the task, believing they were doing the right thing. With genuine sorrow she hugged them both and left the room.

She wished she knew where those responsible were. She reached out with her senses. Wherever there was radiation, she was there. She noticed that she could no longer sense the angry one. _Of course they'll have an underground bunker somewhere, somewhere she couldn't go,_ she thought to herself. If she were a gambler she would take a bet that at least some of the blame lay with people in there. They'd blame the operators though, they always did. And sadly the operators would blame themselves. After seeing what she saw when she plunged into the core, she knew it wasn't their fault. She suspected that even Mr Shouty didn't know exactly what they were dealing with. She hoped that the truth would come out.

The sky outside had become lighter. She went back to the exposed core to check again. Yes, that was what she had seen. Why on earth... She heard something above and looked up. A man was reluctantly looking over the edge of a building. "Why did you do that?" She yelled up at him. She flew upwards to have a closer look. The man was looking back at an armed guard, despair and resignation on his face. She took his face in both hands, controlling her rage. "They forced you" she murmured gently. "They did this to you!" She dashed over to the guard, full of fury, but stopped short. "You're nearly as afraid as he is, aren't you?" She asked. She backed away, shaking her head.

From her viewpoint she surveyed the surrounding landscape. Her strength and influence was growing. Surely they'll evacuate the city? she thought to herself. She looked down towards the ground. Angry Dyatlov was being carried out of the building by two guards. She leapt down towards them, surveying the fallen men and women strewn across the area. Dyatlov looked shocked and confused. He still wasn't believing what he saw. It was obvious he didn't know what had happened. He couldn't have known. "What is coming will be horrific for you, but I have seen your strength. You will need that strength and more in order to survive. Don't give up! And don't blame the operators. They did their best. It wasn't their fault. Or yours. Save your anger for those who are really to blame. She smoothed back his hair. For one moment he appeared to notice her! His eyes focussed on hers, a question on his lips. "You see me?" She whispered in shock. "Do you hear me?" It briefly looked as though he was going to answer, but the spell was broken by the sound of an ambulance. He was back in the physical world, and she was again unseen and unheard.

She looked around again. She could see the radiation that humans couldn't. She was the radiation. She was the anthropomorphic personification of radiation. She didn't physically manifest everywhere that radiation existed, but the larger incidents demanded her attention. She knew she would be here at Chernobyl for a long time to come.

**Author's Note:**

> This characte was inspired by the anthropomorphic personifications like those inthe Terry Pratchett Discworld novels, particularly in Hogfather *glingleglingleglingle*


End file.
